Barry Thorton was a fan of Ilford Perceptol which uses Metol as the only developing agent. When diluted 1+3, Perceptol will give the results that Ornello has already mentioned.
Err towards the generous side with film exposure with this developer.

Keith Tapscott. wrote:Barry Thorton was a fan of Ilford Perceptol which uses Metol as the only developing agent. When diluted 1+3, Perceptol will give the results that Ornello has already mentioned.
Err towards the generous side with film exposure with this developer.

Perceptol is similar to D23 in composition, I believe, as was the late Microdol-X.

Jim Appleyard wrote:You can use Rodinal, thousands of other photographer do. You can dilute it up to 1+300, but 1+50 to 1+100 are the most common. It can give you great negatives...if you know what you're doing.

You can also use a staining developer like Pyrocat HD or WD2D. Yes, the negs come out stained. This stain helps to control contrast when printing.

You can do anything you damned well please, but those methods will be inferior in many ways. Rodinal is not as sensitive to development by-products as are developers made using Metol; it also yields less speed while accentuating graininess. The question has been asked and answered, by me.

Last edited by Ornello on Tue Jun 30, 2015 9:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

Most people don't understand how film works. The latitude and speed of the emulsion are largely determined in manufacture. Slow films are slow because the crystals are small, and each crystal is less likely to be struck by a photon because of that. It therefore takes more exposure (more photons) to get a negative of the proper density.

The crystals of slow fine-grain films are smaller and of a narrow size range.